Certain heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks, such as vacuum gas oil (VGO), are conventionally treated using a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) procedure so as to obtain some fraction of the feedstock as an upgraded product. One particularly desirable upgraded fraction which can be obtained using FCC processing is a light crude oil (LCO). However, conventional FCC processing provides only a small conversion to LCO, for example, about 15% of the feedstock.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a steam conversion process wherein heavy hydrocarbon feedstock such as VGO can be treated so as to obtain increased fractions of desirable products, especially LCO.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a process whereby vacuum gas oil can be converted to valuable products.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear herein below.